Sleeping Pile
by Petchricor
Summary: Sometimes it just feels nice to be close to the ones you care about


**Hey look, I'm still into Red vs Blue! This doesn't really have any spoilers for the finale of season 13, so don't worry**

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"Pretty sure I'm gonna sleep for a week," Grif mumbled as he just simply collapsed on the floor. There were a few tired chuckles in reply as the others filed into the barrack. Kimball had given the entire group, including Wash and Carolina, their own room since there was enough of them to fit. There were two extra bunks but whatever. "Imma sleep on the floor, g'night." Simmons snorted and grabbed a pillow from one of the beds, throwing it at his face. Surprisingly, Grif caught it. "Thanks, Sims."

"Dumbass," Simmons spoke through a yawn. The yawn found its way through the entire group and before Tucker sat down on a bunk everyone had yawned at least once if not more. God, he was so tired. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes a moment, just listening to the others move about and argue amongst themselves. "You're serious, aren't you? You're gonna sleep on the floor."

"I sat down and I'm not getting back up," Grif replied, a bit of a chuckle in his voice.

"Ooh! Ooh! Can I sleep on the floor too, Agent Washingtub?" Tucker snorted at Caboose's question and he could just picture Wash staring at him, not sure how to respond.

"Uh, I guess? Just lay a mat down," he replied slowly. Caboose squealed and Tucker heard the movement of him doing just that. The door opened and closed, Tucker assumed it was probably Carolina back from her talk with Kimball. Tucker vaguely remembered Carolina was the only girl in the entire room...then smacked himself hard. Bad Tucker, bad! "What the fuck was that?" Tucker merely waved Wash off with a grunt. "Freak." Tucker snorted at that but didn't comment as he heard the others moving around. "Caboose, what are you doing? You only need the one mat."

"Well, yes, but, um..." Tucker didn't need to look to know that Caboose was tapping his fingers together nervously. There was silence as Caboose thought. Wash was so patient with Caboose, bless him. "Well...it was really scary up there, there was a lot of shooting and badguys and stuff, and I was wondering...uh..."

"Was wondering what?" Wash said gently. Tucker opened an eye and saw that everyone was staring at Caboose...no wonder he was so nervous, poor guy. Caboose seemed to shrink a little, looking up at Wash with big, pleading eyes.

"I was wondering if you could sleep with me?" If it had been anyone else Tucker would have said his classical line, but it was Caboose. They had been fighting on this planet for awhile now, never really stopping to rest for very long, and for an innocent mind such as Caboose's this logic made complete sense. Wash didn't respond, rubbing his arm awkwardly at the question, and everyone else looked really weirded out and maybe even a little confused. Tucker felt sympathy swell in his chest and he sighed, standing up.

"Mind if I join?" he inquired, raising a brow. Caboose looked at him, taken aback by the question. Tucker expected him to say no, they had never exactly been friends, but to his surprise Caboose nodded enthusiastically. "Awesome." He grabbed the pillow on his bunk and the mat, dragging them over and setting them down next to Caboose's, who was smiling. Wash sighed and tossed his pillow down on the extra mat Caboose had already set up.

"Why not?" he said it with a bit of a laugh before plopping down on the mat. Tucker watched with a funny smile as, after a moment of two, the others all followed suit in setting up their mats on the floor together. After a bit of arguing, because between them it really couldn't be called a discussion, they moved all the bunks to the back of the room and removed the mats, lining them up so they made a square in the newly freed space.

Once all was said and done the entire crew was lying together in a heap of pillows and blankets on the ground. You'd expect this to be awkward, since this is normally a girl sleepover kinda deal, but it really wasn't. Tucker had known these guys for over ten years now, they'd fought against each other, for each other, alongside each other, battled monsters and psychos, and seen every inch of each other, emotionally and physically...what was sharing a bedding space compared to all of that?

AΩ

Tucker woke in the middle of the night, yawning wide in the dim light the two moons of Chorus were giving the room. Tucker glanced around the room goggly at the others, some part of him thinking that he had to make sure they were all there before going to sleep again...he remembered doing this after they had first arrived, some part of him scared that they would be taken from him like Wash had. It seemed it had become a habit or something dumb like that.

Regardless of knowing that it was a pretty useless habit, Tucker still sat up and took a look around the room. He saw Grif curled up in a blanket with Simmons lying practically on top of him, their hands laced together in their sleep. Tucker couldn't help but smile a little at that before continuing on down the list. Sarge was lying on his back with his arms sprawled out above his head, his legs lying over Grif's. Tucker found Doc and Donut hugging each other not too far from the reds, Donut's head in the crook of Doc's neck.

Tucker yawned hard, his teeth catching on the air a moment, before looking around for last three, who were all around him. Caboose was still clinging to Tucker's side despite the fact he had moved and Wash was lying by his legs, curled up in a ball with a hand on his knife, old habits die hard. And Carolina...Tucker felt panic rise up in his throat and he whipped his head around, looking for the other aqua soldier. He nearly stood up, not even caring if he woke Caboose, when the door opened. He looked over and he and Carolina stared at each other a moment.

"Why are you awake?" she whispered, closing the door and walking in. Tucker relaxed and let out a soft sigh.

"Woke up suddenly. What were you doing?" Carolina sat down on the mat by Tucker, pulling her leg up and placing an arm on her knee.

"Had to get some fresh air, that's all," she answered through a yawn. Tucker nodded and yawned too. Tucker glanced around at everyone, counting in his head to make sure all eight of the others were present. They were and Tucker smiled. "Were you...counting under your breath?" Tucker looked over at her, figuring he probably had been. He nodded. She furrowed her brow. "Why?"

"I was making sure everyone was here." She raised a brow and Tucker sighed. "After Wash got captured I kept having dreams that the ones who were with me got taken too. I always made sure all three were there and safe before I went back to bed. Habit now, I guess." Tucker tried to play it off as nothing big, he even shrugged with a nonchalant grunt, but he didn't think Carolina bought it. She chuckled a little and gave a light shake of her head.

"You amaze me, Tucker," she said softly. Tucker whipped his head around to stare at her in surprise. "I mean it. You act like this cocky player, but you're really not. You care a lot and fight hard, I'm really impressed." After a moment of skepticism Tucker smiled at her in thanks. "Come on, it's sleeping time." Tucker yawned as if in agreement and laid back down, making sure Caboose's head rested back on his shoulder for a pillow. Carolina curled up with her back against Tucker's side, one hand out as if ready to strike as her eyes closed. "Night, Tucker."

"G'Night, 'Lina."

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 **And that's a wrap!**

 **Thanks for reading, please review and have a bow chicka bow wow day~**

 **Petchricor, QotG, signing off ;)**


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